The information presented in this paper is from field surveys
undertaken in February 1979 as part of a project on spontaneous
land clearing in Thailand supported by the Volkswagen Foundation.
The areas selected for the studies are in the north-east and
south-east regions of Thailand (see fig. 1). The area in the
north-east is called Ban Sarn Chao Po, or Km 79, and is in Tambon
Wang Nam Khiew, Nakhon Ratchasima Province (Khorat). It lies on
the west side of National Highway 304. Its hinterland contains at
least five villages and about 14 hamlets. The area is located on
the escarpment of the Khorat plateau and is characterized by
small hills and undulating land-forms.

The second study area lies in King Amphoe Bo Thong, Chon Buri
Province, 87 km to the south-east of Bangkok. The area includes
eight villages and stretches eastward from King Amphoe township
to the border of Rayong Province.

This paper attempts to describe the process of forest clearing
and land use in Thailand by tracing the history and stages of
settlement. Although the area of study may not be representative
for the whole of Thailand, the two case studies have revealed
some of the major causes and the sequence of deforestation,
especially in the area where extensive cash-crop cultivation is
predominant. The paper also focuses on the social aspect of the
population involved in the process, its organization and
adaptability to its new setting.

This has contributed to the overall economic status of the
country. The main reasons for the growth are: (1) the shift from
almost exclusively rice to rice plus other higher value export
crops, and (2) the expansion of agricultural land through the
opening of new land, particularly forest areas.

But this growth has extracted a price in terms of the alarming
rate of natural resource depletion. During the period of the
Third Development Plan (19721976), characterized by the maize and
cassava boom, forest areas were heavily destroyed. The
government, being aware of this problem, expressed its concern in
the Fourth National Economic Development Plan (1977-1981),
stating that the proportion of land under forest in Thailand had
fallen to only 38.6 per cent, which was lower than the targeted
40 per cent for the end of the Third Plan (1972-1976) as compared
to 53 per cent in 1961.

Consequently agricultural land had increased rapidly from 49
million rai (7.84 million ha) to 109 million rai (17.44 million
ha) within 15 years (1960-1975), an average increase of 6 per
cent per year. By 1984 it was estimated that about 147 million
rai (23.52 million ha) of forest land had been cleared and
converted to agricultural use whilst the forest area had declined
to less than 30 per cent of the area of the country (Office of
the National Economic and Social Development Board 1982, 52). The
north-east region has the highest rate of forest depletion, at
about 5,136.5 km2 per year, or 12.38 per cent, of the
forested area in 1976. The south-east, on the other hand, ranks
second with 797 km2, or 6.31 per cent, of forest
depleted per year (Klankamsorn and Charuphat 1981) (see figs. 2
and 3).

Apart from the two factors mentioned, population pressure and
land fragmentation in older settled areas have contributed to
rapid forest colonization. The number of farming families has
steadily increased, from about 3 million in 1970 to almost 4.5
million in 1980 (Office of Agricultural Economics 1981, 65), an
increase of 19 percent.

The introduction of commercial crops such as maize in the
1960s and cassava in the 1970s encouraged more farmers to seek
new land for cultivation as they were regarded as a good source
of income with least cost and high profits. Planted areas of
maize increased by 125 per cent (from 4.1 to 9.3 million rai)
from 1967 to 1980, while for cassava the increase was almost 400
per cent (from 1.4 to 6.9 million rai) from 1970 to 1980
(Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives 1980).

This expanding frontier has absorbed a considerable portion of
the increasing farming population. Each successive government has
recognized this and some have used it as a strategy to reduce
tension or to win popular support by approving the existence of
squatters in forest reserve areas. For example in 1975 the prime
minister issued an order to the Ministry of Agriculture to
tolerate the presence of farmers who had already settled in the
reserved areas. The lack of firm or a national policy from the
Government to protect forest and natural resources has indirectly
encouraged spontaneous land clearing and, at the same time,
created conflicts between ground-level officials in the Ministry
of Agriculture and the Ministry of Interior.

The government's efforts in trying to solve the problem, that
is, by setting up self-help land settlements and land-reform
schemes involving at least seven agencies, have not proved very
successful. The schemes have not fully achieved their goals in
helping the landless or needy farmers. Ironically, these schemes
paved the way for the opening of more forest areas. This fact has
been recognized and one of the Fifth Plan aims of conserving
natural resources calls for a review and improvement of existing
landsettlement schemes instead of establishing and expanding new
areas.

The early stage of forest exploitation in the Km 79 area was
started at least one generation ago by the Chao Bon people, or
highlanders (an important ethnic group living in the western part
of Khorat) (Seidenfaden 1967,112). They were hunters and
gatherers who lived by swidden agriculture, growing crops such as
upland rice, chillies, tobacco, and taro as well as exploiting
local forest products such as scented wood and black lacquer from
the yang tree (Dipterocarpus alatus). They were the original
inhabitants in the area which is now the Lam Praploeng Dam but
gradually shifted their cultivation southwards into the area that
is now the hinterland of Km 79.

The ethnic Thai wet-rice farmers living in the adjacent
lowland areas were the second population group to expand their
agricultural areas by claiming the clearings left by the Chao
Bon. They planted sugar-cane to produce home-made brown sugar,
which was an item used in bartering for other goods, for example,
chilliest It was not until the 1940s that the first brown-sugar
mills were built in some of the north-eastern provinces,
including Khorat. (When the Lam Praploeng Dam was completed in
1967, the sugarcane areas were gradually converted into paddy
land, since irrigation was available.) These farmers, by
following the Chao Bon "route," also exploited jungle
resources and cultivated subsistence upland crops, supplementing
wet-rice cultivation in their old settlements.

Large-scale exploiters of forest resources were the commercial
logging companies, which started to extract timber in the area as
early as the 1940s and continued for about 30 years. During that
time other developments were taking place, that is, the
construction of a dirt road, which later became National Highway
304, and the introduction of a bus route linking Khorat to the
south-east (Rayong Province).

The earlier development of roads and sawmills brought workers,
who became the first group of permanent settlers in Km 79. They
were from neighbouring villages as well as other provinces like
Nakhon Nayok and Sara Buri. Apart from growing subsistence upland
crops, these settlers earned their living by felling trees in the
hinterland, which was inaccessible to trucks supplying the
sawmills. Elephants were used to haul logs to the road.

When maize became an important crop for export in the late
1950s, Amphoe Pak Thong Chai played a major role as a trading
centre in Khorat. This brought in more people, who were former
highway construction workers. They were mainly maize farmers from
the maize belt in the central region, for example, Nakhon Nayok,
Sara Buri, Lop Buri, and Nakhon Sawan provinces.

By 1964 the cultivated areas expanded into the hinterland
further westward from Highway 304. This process was accelerated
when tractors were introduced at about the same time. The forest
areas were rapidly depleted and transformed into maize land. The
maize boom period started at about the beginning of the 1970s,
when the influx of inmigration began. Maize traders established
shops as buying depots while new seed (Suwan Nung) was introduced
to replace the old Guatemala. A system called tok khao phot was
introduced to farmers whereby maize traders provided loans and
services such as milling and transporting produce for farmers.
Farmers in turn had to sell their produce back to the same trader
who also set the price. Farmers were paid in cash after the
deduction of debts plus an interest of about 3-5 per cent per
crop year, that is, five to six months. This system ensures
farmers a stable market for their produce as it does traders
dealing with exporters in Bangkok. This had a triggering effect
and encouraged more inmigrants from the central region and
wet-rice farmers from other provinces in the northeast. These
wet-rice farmers came primarily to work as labourers in the maize
fields during the slack period of paddy cultivation to earn extra
income. Some labourers managed to buy or rent land to begin
farming maize as a sideline. The tok khao phot system enabled
poor farmers to grow maize with the necessary inputs provided by
the traders.

During this process the registered population of the
subdistrict office rose from 10,000 to 13,000 during 1975-1979
(it was estimated that about five per cent of the population
moved in unreported), whereby the number of settlements also
increased. They gradually became permanent communities and were
finally approved by the local government as separate villages. By
1984 three new tambon (subdistricts) with about 30 villages had
been registered. These villages expanded from the previous ones.

The population in the study area of Km 79 may be classified
into two groups. the maize farmers and the traders. The former
are mainly from outside Tambon Wang Nam Khiew and may be
classified further into three categories according to their
socio-economic background: (a) permanent residents; (b) seasonal
residents; and (c) seasonal wage labourers

Permanent residents are those who have registered with the
kamnan, the subdistrict head. These residents have come from
maize-growing areas seeking new and fertile land since their
previous fields have become impoverished or suffered drought and
pest damage. The size of their holdings varies from 50 to 200 rai
(8-32 ha) per family. Such farmers are more dependent on the
maize traders for food supplies compared to seasonal residents,
who are wet-rice farmers.

Seasonal residents are farmers from wet-rice areas both within
Khorat and from other provinces of the north-east. They are
engaged in planting maize for cash income as a supplement to wet
rice since the cropping pattterns of both are complementary.
There are two types of seasonal farmers: those who own their
maize fields and those who rent them (seasonal tenants). The
seasonal tenants are small wet-rice farmers from poorer areas in
the north-east. They generally rent small plots, either from
permanent residents or from seasonal residents with their own
land. The amount of land rented depends on how much family labour
is available. They come to this area irregularly, depending on
the price of maize and the success of the wet-rice crop; if the
crop is poor, more seasonal tenants come.

Seasonal wage labourers are mainly young men who are wet-rice
farmers from poor areas in the north-east. They come in great
numbers during the maize planting season (April-June) and
harvesting season (October-December), when heavy labour inputs
are required. They earned about 18-20 baht (U.S. $0.70) per day
at the time of study (1979), with board and lodging provided by
the employer.

Crop traders or middlemen, locally known as tao Kae, form
another occupational group involved in the maize trade and
supporting cultivation. They not only buy maize from farmers but
provide loans and some other necessary goods, especially rice
during the six to eight months prior to harvest. There are four
large-scale traders at the Km 79 market who have at least 500,000
baht (U.S. $19,230) in circulation for maize purchase each crop
year to be sold to exporters in Bangkok through an organizer
caller a yong. The small-scale traders or crop brokers are
shopkeepers at the Km 79 market, selling groceries and
miscellaneous goods to farmers on credit. The latter have to
repay in maize, plus interest of 5 per cent per month. These
small-scale traders generally deal with seasonal farmers and
tenants of small holdings.

Patterns of the earlier permanent settlements were formed as
clusters not far away from Highway 304, which is surrounded by
planted areas claimed by members of the group (mostly relatives
and friends). This pattern encouraged mutual help among new
settlers and also group security. It gradually vanished as more
and more cultivators moved in for land and was replaced by one
more characteristically dispersed where cultivators lived on
their own and were more independent. However dispersed the
homesteads appeared, those who came from the same area generally
settled near one another in groups of about five to ten
dwellings, forming a hamlet. When such hamlets increased, they
eventually became a formal village. This process was generally
feasible because the Government has tried to facilitate rural
administration and promote permanent settlements, mainly for the
purpose of supervision and to maintain peace and order in the
area. Such a community is composed of different groups of people
from various places with mainly young and newly founded families.
The village headman, or phuyai ban, is generally chosen either
from among the first to settle in the area or from among those
having the most relatives in the community.

What these young communities in the hinterland lack is a wet
(Buddhist temple)-regarded with importance for the people to
perform religious functions and to provide a school for their
children. During the pioneering period farmers had to leave their
school-aged children with grandparents or relatives to attend
school in the old home village. For their part they had to return
home for religious ceremonies. It is likely therefore that the
establishment of such institutions is one way of creating
community integration.

The study area is located in King Amphoe Bo Thong, which is
about 60 km east of the district centre. The first record of
forest exploitation is from as early as the 1930s, when natives
sought jungle products, especially yang oil (black lacquer),
which later became commercialized by a Chinese trader living in
Phanat Nikhom. At that time sugarcane was already being grown in
the area surrounding Phanat Nikhom, supplying brownsugar mills
operated by the Chinese. The area under cane did not expand into
Bo Thong until the 1960s because lumbering was still very active.
Sawmillers extracted timber from the forests of Bo Thong even
before the 1940s. Extensive extraction of timber occurred in the
1950s, during which three more sawmills were established in the
adjacent amphoe (district). In addition, two timber concessions
were granted, covering an area of about 850 km2
encompassing parts of Ban Bung and Bo Thong. The first course of
deforestation through timber felling lasted almost 40 years, of
which the last concession ended in 1970.

Sugar-cane farmers (brown-sugar processors) started to
penetrate the area in the 1960s by claiming old felling locations
along logging routes. These people were the first to put this
frontier land to cultivation. The tract of land claimed was not
less than 500 rai (80 ha). It was also this group of brown-sugar
processors who began the luk rai system.

When the area proved to be suitable for sugar-cane, upon the
exhaustion of commercial timber supplies, the lumber-mill owners
used the land for speculative purposes. As they were not farmers,
these "land controllers" introduced the pa boei system,
by which small or landless farmers are granted permission to work
on a piece of claimed land over a certain period of time,
generally three to five years (contract farmers). They are
allowed to clear and till the land to grow any crops and to reap
the harvests without any interference from the land controllers
until the due time, as previously agreed. After this the process
is repeated on other plots of land. This system was a
contributing factor to the clearing of forests in the hinterland
and, at the same time, encouraging the in-migration of small or
landless farmers. The land controllers are not only lumber owners
but rich merchants and businessmen who have claimed and control
large areas of land but are not their legal owners. Their control
can be exercised only if government agencies collaborate or
ignore their illegal activities; that is, control depends on
wealth and political influence and on the tolerance of their
activities by the Government.

The development of road networks and the introduction of a new
variety of cane led to the development of processing techniques
and equipment required for the establishment of white-sugar
mills. The rate of deforestation increased rapidly as more
settlers moved in. Local records revealed that from 1973 to 1978
the population doubled from about 11,000 to 22,000.

As Bo Thong began to attract wage labourers when white-sugar
mills were developed, the mills started buying fresh cane
directly from plantation owners through a quota system.

The settlers of Bo Thong differ from those in Km 79 as they
are mainly indigenous to the district of Phanat Nikhom, which was
once a sugar-cane growing area. Through the process of land
colonization different groups of population emerged:

1. The rich and large-scale plantation-type farmers or
brown-sugar processors (Jon" chu)
2. Luk rai, farm labourers who work on the long chu farms
3. Small farmers (pa boei farmers) who clear forest for landlords
and grow cassava and subsistence crops on small holdings of 10-20
rai (1.6-3.2 ha) in the hinterland
4. Medium-sized farmers with holdings of 200-400 rai (32-64 ha)
who entered the area when it was more established
5. Seasonal wage labourers who are mainly wet-rice cultivators
from the northeast. They were brought in by the long chu when
white-sugar mills began buying cane and labour was much needed
during harvests. Apart from this, the labourers could earn
incomes from this work during the slack period of paddy
cultivation.

Bo Thong owes much of its development to the sugar industry,
which has generated various sources of income for its people.
Besides crop production there is a commercial sector supporting
and interrelated to the former which includes:

1. Shopkeepers and traders, who were attracted to settle in Bo
Thong when the area started to develop into a large production
center for cash crops, especially after 1967
2. Crop brokers, who opened shops at the Om Phanom market to buy
whatever smallscale farmers produced (excluding sugar-cane), such
as cassava, ground-nut, sweet corn, and tumeric
3. Truck owners, who play an important role in the cassava
network as they are shopkeepers or cassava cultivators renting
out their vehicles for transporting cassava from the hinterland
area as a sideline

To conclude, in the production system in the Bo Thong area all
population and occupational groups are interrelated. The long chu
provided the luk rai with board, lodging, and protection and in
turn received services and labour for the brownsugar mills. The
latter were also provided with land ranging from 20 to 50 rai
(3.2-8 ha) depending on the number of workers in the family. This
pattern of relationships formed an inter-class bond, with each
party needing the other. Gradually this system began to decline
when the brown-sugar industry ceased. It was replaced by one of
seasonal wage labourers because the cost of production rose. Thus
a new work system, mao raksa, was introduced under which seasonal
workers came for three months to cultivate and care for the cane
until the first weeding was done. These workers were paid on a
piece-work basis of 700 baht per rai (U.S. $168.00 per ha).

Today the term luk rai is used to describe any farmer
dependent on the long chu for loans or a share in the sugar-cane
quota. The pa boei, or contract farmers, clear forest land for
land controllers. This system protects the controllers from the
risk of raids by government forestry officers. Traders, crop
brokers, and truck owners are important in the production system
as they provide services and market outlets for smaller
enterprises.

The brown-sugar processors were the first group to settle
permanently. They formed a cluster of settlements of row houses
near the road intersections which eventually became shop houses
and a market centre, Om Phanom. When more migrants moved into the
area in later years, settlements began to disperse into fields
and also occurred in small groups lining the roads. Owing to the
lumber businesses and plantation owners, road networks in the
area were well developed and accessible to most locations. Those
having land near the road chose to build their houses at the
intersections.

In 1979 Bo Thong consisted of eight villages, of which the
most important was Om Phanom. By 1984 the number of villages had
increased to 10. The interesting feature of each village
community is that each has a small centre of shop houses near
road intersections selling groceries, food, and drink as well as
serving as a meeting place. The degree of interaction and contact
between villagers varies among various groups.

However, in such a cash crop area the sugar-cane and cassava
farmers are occupied almost ail year round. Most social contact
tends to evolve in the crop-production area or where the farmers
live, when, for example, mutual help is given in clearing land.
Unlike in the traditional wet-rice community, however, the wet
and schools perform only limited, basic functions and do not
carry out other economic or social roles. This is because the
agricultural production system in Bo Thong has embraced all
aspects of farmers' livelihood. In addition, the new settlements
of Bo Thong are composed mainly of people who moved from within
Chon Buri and have similar backgrounds; they are accustomed to
this system of cropping and its social livelihood.

The two case studies share some characteristics with regard to
the stages and process of forest colonization, starting from the
exploitation of forest resources at the subsistence level to the
commercialized logging business and extensive cash-crop
cultivation, maize in the case of Km 79 and sugar-cane in the Bo
Thong area.

However, there are differences in the degree of development.
The economy of the Bo Thong area is more established in terms of
investments (e.g. industries and trade) than that of Km 79.
Development in Km 79 depends mainly on the maize trade, which
fluctuates according to world markets, not to mention the
environment and climatic conditions which directly affect
production. Development in Km 79 has decreased because resources
have been exploited and drained by farmers and traders who are
primarily from other areas.

In Bo Thong the large-scale sugar-cane farmers and brown-sugar
processors (ethnic Chinese) invested in extensive cultivation. As
a result land speculation for agricultural development in the
area has increased. The process began earlier here than in Km 79,
which developed only when maize was introduced in the 1950s.
Large tracts of forest land in the Bo Thong area were claimed by
the rich and influencial sawmillers, who controlled and regulated
spontaneous land clearings through the luk rai and pa boei
systems.

Under the tok khao phot system the farmers in Km 79 are more
independent in terms of acquisition of land since maize traders
do not control access to land. However well these systems
functioned to serve the needs of the two parties concerned in
forest clearing, growth began to decline and the relationship
between farmers and their supporters (e.g. the long chu and luk
rai relationship) began to loosen. One obvious reason is the
higher risk involved when more capital investment is needed for
production. By implication, for such a system to exist there
should be natural resources. As seen in the case of Km 79, when
maize yields declined due to low soil fertility, profits
decreased because of increasing input costs. Traders became more
cautious in giving loans and in the Om Phanom area, for example,
the long chu now prefer to keep wage labourers in place of the
luk rai.

This problem of depleted resources is felt not only by the
farmers but also by the government. Previous development in the
agricultural sector was by "area expansion," which has
now to be replaced by the "increasing yield per rai"
strategy stated in the Fifth Development Plan. A review of past
agricultural development shows that the rate of growth in the
agricultural sector has declined to about 3.5 per cent due to the
degradation of natural resources. It is anticipated that unless
conservation measures are taken the rate of decline will further
decrease. The areas most affected will be those in the upper
north and the north-east of Thailand. It is obvious that Thailand
has now reached the point where "no more frontier land"
is available for exploitation. What the government has proposed
as one of the aims of the Fifth Development Plan is to increase
the production potential of farmers by giving priority to
projects such as those connected with soil, water, and forest
conservation.

It is time that we ceased taking natural resources for granted
or as a free means of production. Although it may be
time-concurring, Thai farmers should be trained and guided with
firm and persistent support from the government in adopting
technologies on intensive rather than extensive use of land.